50 points eggbrain 1 hour ago 44 comments
1) What AI subscriptions are you personally paying for? (Claude, ChatGPT/Codex, Cursor, etc)
- Which tiers?
- Have you purchased multiple subscriptions from the same provider (eg two Claude accounts)?
2) Are you using models outside (or instead) of those subscriptions? For example, pay-as-you-go APIs, OpenRouter, or locally hosted models.
- Which models and providers?
3) What coding harnesses and interfaces are you using? Are you sticking with the default CLIs or IDE integrations, or using alternatives like OpenCode, Pi, Aider, Muse Code, or custom-built harnesses?
- What made you switch harnesses (if you switched)?
4) Are you using any agent orchestration or swarm tools?
- For example, Munder Difflin, Gas Town, Ruflo, or something custom.
5) Are you using broader agent platforms like OpenClaw / Hermes Agent / Grok bot / Dots / Muse?
- If you are using them, what are your main use cases?
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I know my workflow has differed significantly from a year ago, and so it would be interesting to capture a snapshot today of what people are using and why.
thefourthchime 52 minutes ago | parent
I'd say the biggest trick is just to tell it what complete looks like. Be very specific about what you want it to come back with once it's done. That gives it a good idea what the goal is. It'll automatically create subagents and all that stuff. Although if you have money to burn and you're doing something large, you can tell it to just go wide or boil the ocean.
Also, make sure you're working on at least five different things. Otherwise, you're sitting around for one agent.
sparklingmango 26 minutes ago | parent
enjoyyourlife 45 minutes ago | parent
npc99 43 minutes ago | parent
I try to use open weight and cheap models as much as possible.
codingbear 40 minutes ago | parent
Openclaw is the answer to question "do X if Y happens". An agent per each type of Y channel manages the flow and memory. And user input is just another case of 'Y'. It is a very powerful model I am having lots of fun with it.
the plumbing is a chore though, thinking of trying out grokbots to see if they solved it.
simlevesque 40 minutes ago | parent
2) My main model is Deepseek flash via the API.
3) Claude Code CLI inside OpenShell. I like Claude Code's UX. Lots of custom skills and scripts.
4) No
5) No
joshstrange 36 minutes ago | parent
2. OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Luna, and testing out models here and there
3. Claude Code and Codex for the respective subscriptions. Played with OpenCode and Pi some as well
4. I've tried a number of these tools and settled on my own tool (not released) to oversee my agents
5. Played with OpenClaw and Hermes in the past, cool ideas but execution fell flat. I currently use Dots and Duet for little things (mostly monitoring communications). Dots is much better than Duet today but I hope Duet gets better.
ctolsen 34 minutes ago | parent
I generally use open weight models (Kimi K3.1, Mistral Large 4, GLM-5.3, DeepSeek v4.1 Flash, Mimo v2.6 Pro is the current quiver) but I use closed frontiers enough to stay up to date.
2) I use OpenRouter if I have a specific need, audio transcription (MAI-Transcribe 2) being something I use often enough. Also using it just to test random models.
Not much local anymore except classifiers / decision models that I've played with.
3) Pi all the way.
4) I use Paseo to orchestrate agents, I have a couple plugins I've written for it that manages pipelines and such. I generally start a workflow with a simple skill and if it proves useful I like to make it deterministic if possible. Models be dumb sometimes.
6) No but I have some Paseo plugins for personal use, though it's very limited what I find useful. I also don't find that I want any claw type stuff at all.
jherdman 33 minutes ago | parent
marshalla 29 minutes ago | parent
I tried setting up a script so Claude could automatically call agy, but it kept hitting timeouts, and letting Claude control that tends to burn my usage too quickly anyway (and if I'm not copy-pasting into different terminals, where's my value add in all this?).
Argon hallucinates, so I rarely use it for impl, but I've actually had better results with it than Opus for SwiftUI and AppKit work.
I try not to run more than three sessions at once, or I get anxiety about having to keep all the session caches fresh and end up typing silly things into some of them every 30-45 min so they don't expire or auto-compact.
giovanniwants 28 minutes ago | parent
CBLT 27 minutes ago | parent
I get a lot of value from having an LLM to talk to LLMs for me. It can automatically set up adversarial reviews from other ecosystems, or just prompt the implementation LLM to adhere to certain standards. My goal is to have fewer touch points when implementing. I want to speech to text a paragraph or two giving "taste" to the process; everything else is just toil.
zellerhaus 27 minutes ago | parent
No harnesses right now. Ok occasion using models in LocalLM.
Haven't got into agent orchestration much other than Paperclip earlier this year.
fbelzile 26 minutes ago | parent
2) No.
3) None.
4) No.
5) No.
sparklingmango 24 minutes ago | parent
brightball 22 minutes ago | parent
It's a solid groove. Grok Bot helped me get so much stuff off of my plate.
dewey 20 minutes ago | parent
Separately I'm evaluating https://ampcode.com/ which is very polished, but I feel like the diff-reading part is not very prominent there which I find a bit odd. After watching many of their videos I feel like that's because they are opinionated on this not being necessary any more as the models are good enough. I kind of agree, but still like to give it a last glance before committing.
phillc73 20 minutes ago | parent
I used to have two Mistral subscriptions, because I needed the extra capacity, but quickly realised I'd need three or more, so switched to the two providers above.
2. Providers covered in the first point. Regarding models I use a combination of GLM5.3, GLM5.3 Flash and Deepseek 4.1 Flash 1017. Which model I use depends on the task. GLM5.3 Flash for general chat and co-ordination tasks. Deepseek 1017 for most coding related work and GML5.3 for adversarial batteries and documentation.
3. Maki[3], although quite customised with various plugins. No python permitted, only Janet for scripting. Extremely limited bash calls, instead preferring to use the built in harness tooling, or plugin tooling I've written. AGENTS and skills used extensively. Mechanical gates also used to prevent certain actions, like remote git pushes without explicit prior approval.
I switched to Maki for the token saving strategies and stayed for the ergonomics, which I think I like, but maybe just feel comfortable with now.
4. None listed. The closest I come is a multipane Zellij setup with different agents running in different panes. Orchestration is still human in the loop though.
5. None
[3] https://maki.sh/
xeonax 19 minutes ago | parent
nkotov 19 minutes ago | parent
I'm sticking with Default CLI/Desktop apps + built my own to combine them for my specific workflows. Used previously OpenClaw and Hermes but it seems to fall apart when you give it any real work. Ending up giving up because I just don't have to tinker / fine-tune it.
I will say, I enjoy Muse a lot for some reason for personal things. I don't overshare anything I wouldn't mind saying in public.
Within the last month, I basically use Claude Design exclusively for front end work and Codex for backend work. Codex just works but sucks as design. Claude is great at design (with enough references) but can't seem to actually get anything to completion.
yewenjie 18 minutes ago | parent
I wanted to really keep Claude but ChatGPT voice mode is too good tbh and no other comes close. I wish I could use Opus 5.5 for coding.
2) OpenRouter PAYG, mostly for experimenting with Chinese models like Deepseek and GLM, usually for stuff that Codex or Grok refuses to do.
Had been looking into NEAR and Venice for completely private information processing (like emails) but haven't set them up yet.
3) Codex, and OpenCode as harnesses basically.
4) I really wish I could decide on some agent orchestrator without trying them out for weeks. I like my tools highly powerful and trying to find recommendation for this online is hopeless because it's full of opinion from people who never used a terminal before.
5) Grok Bot for running experiments with supplements, calory tracking etc.. Tried to set up Hermes a couple of times but hated it every time. Just gave Rakazo a try yesterday and still hating it.
Gosh, I dream about the time when you could look at a github repo and make a decent guess about the quality of the software.
dgb23 17 minutes ago | parent
Focus is pi + self hosted GLM Flash.
Pi is lightweight and easily extensible and creates minimal extra noise. the output I get is very close to what I want to see.
my workflow is focused on clear turns between planning, testing and implementation. Any useful/recurring tasks, like getting/filtering logs, checking statuses etc get regularly folded into a project cli and agent skills that are local to the project.
I spend time interactively iterating on the plan/design and acceptance tests, then let it do its thing. Usually I have multiple interactive sessions at once that I'm steering this way. 1-2 assigned projects, 1-3 side projects (additional automation, experiments/POCs, workflow/process efficiency etc.). I generally don't do sub-agents. When I need throughput I automate first, frontloading the "deterministic" parts.
yewenjie 11 minutes ago | parent
peepee1982 17 minutes ago | parent
For the actual agents I use Claude Code for my Claude subscription, Codex for my OpenAI subscription (I usually only keep one of those at a time), and pi for my OpenCode Go subscription.
I mostly use Sonnet 5.5 medium and Sol 6.1 medium for everything. But lately I have been using DeepSeek 4.1 Flash a lot and find it very capable.
At work I use T3 Code as well, but it isn't connected to my personal machines or subscriptions and use Github Copilot in T3 Code via ACP. Model choice is similar, but for more involved tasks for architecture analysis or design, big features that touch a lot of interconnected subsystems, etc. I'll turn up reasoning effort to high or use Opus 5.5 on medium or high. But when actually implementing, I try to break up my tasks into smaller pieces and the models usually do well even without reasoning turned up.
Most of my work goes into rewriting prose in reports, commit messages, PR summaries, etc. because all models still struggle with that. (Claude models less than GPT ones in my experience, but still ...)
ChrisRR 16 minutes ago | parent
skorobogatko 16 minutes ago | parent
2. No (only the API for projects)
3. Buzzpot.app (my app)
4. No
5. No (I tried them, but couldn't find a use case for them)
drbscl 12 minutes ago | parent
In my day job I use Claude Code & Codex subscriptions (Codex is mostly for review, second opinion, and as a backup).
Personally I use both oh-my-pi and Hermes with a Codex subscription. I tend to use OMP more now though, since I find its interface a bit nicer when working on the laptop.
behole 10 minutes ago | parent
vcryan 10 minutes ago | parent
puszczyk 10 minutes ago | parent
2) payg on opencode
3) standard claude code and opencode driven by t3 code
4) nope
5) grok bot - at work, to manage my tasks, and to highlight what happened on slack when i was off; random one offs there
tinyhouse 8 minutes ago | parent
1. Claude Code with $20 Claude subscription. This used to be a terrible value but now it's a great value, probably because of the IPO. I do a lot of coding and other things and I rarely get close to my weekly limit. I mostly use Opus 5.5 medium. Codex with gpt used to be good value but recently I canceled it cause I kept reaching my limits.
2. When I want a "different pair of eyes" to review things I'm working on with Opus, I use Pi with other model providers and just pay API prices.
3. Deepseek harness with a deepseek API key. Really great value.
4. I have a Muse $5/month subscription that I keep as a backup although I don't really need it.
I also use cloud agents to setup reoccurring jobs. For expensive agent runs, like visit 5000 websites and extract something from each, I would set up something cheap with an agents sdk and for the model use either Muse, Deepseek, or GPT-6-luna using their batch API.
I maintain all my dotfiles and agent files / context in a github repo so that I can switch easily between harnesses and providers.
aqme28 7 minutes ago | parent
swiftcoder 5 minutes ago | parent
Work provides an enterprise Claude subscription for work stuff, I've never hit any limits on that either.
yuppiepuppie 5 minutes ago | parent
wolttam 5 minutes ago | parent
Keeping it simple.
auslegung 4 minutes ago | parent
monneyboi 2 minutes ago | parent
x3haloed 1 minute ago | parent
I avoided building anything custom until I had to, and I avoided adding more than a single agent until I had to.
My preferred way to use AI for coding has been to work closely with a single coding agent with the code open. That changed wth 5.6-Sol and a handful of skill files. I stopped needing to watch closely to keep it from fucking up the codebase. With the right request, that combination will get the job done 9/10 times.
That unlocked a new workflow: as soon as a change is requested, a coding agent reads it and gives me a PR. I want a complete proposed code change in front of my eyeballs by the time I open the change request myself.
So I have a custom solution in place to manage a handful of agents aligned with this workflow.
Custom solutions are so cheap and easy now... it's really hard to put up with solutions that are only mostly right for the job.